In Wes Craven’s Scream, the Ghostface killer targets the fictional California town of Woodsboro.
The 1996 film begins with a telephone call to high-school student Casey Becker before a series of murders draws attention to Woodsboro. Sidney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell, becomes the central survivor as the investigation exposes links to her family and classmates.
Woodsboro is fictional, but the movie presents it as a recognizable American suburban community. The setting allows Scream to combine a slasher mystery with commentary on horror-film rules, including the characters’ knowledge of earlier genre conventions.
Woodsboro is distinct from Haddonfield, the Illinois setting of Halloween, and Springwood, the Ohio setting associated with A Nightmare on Elm Street. Those towns belong to different horror franchises and are not alternative names for Scream’s setting.